Taiwanese: "man among men"

[Mavericker]

Hello. I was asking for Taiwanese Hokkien translations of "man among men", and was given:

查甫人的查甫

"yi shi cha-bo-lang diong e cha-bo-lang", and "chit-e cha-bo-lang chin yong", and:

模範男人，男人中的典範

精品男人，男人中的精品

極品男人，男人中的極品

and

人中（之）人

and

男子汉中的男子汉; 特出人物.

"A man among men", is a person regarded as epitomizing manhood or mankind; (esp. as a term of praise) one who is the equal of or an example to all others; an active, well-rounded member of society.

I'd like to know are there shorter, more abbreviated ways to say,

查甫人的查甫

男子汉中的男子汉 and

男人中的典範，男人中的精品，男人中的極品

and

"yi shi cha-bo-lang diong e cha-bo-lang", and "chit-e cha-bo-lang chin yong"?

I'd also like to know, are there any other terms I can use?

Please let me know. Thank you.

[Lu]

My Taiwanese/Hokkien is very, very limited, but I am rather sure that cha-bo-lang means 'male person', not 人. Or is that what you meant?

[Mavericker]

Hi Lu. You asked, "I am rather sure that cha-bo-lang means 'male person', not 人. Or is that what you meant?"

I'm not sure what you are asking. I was going by the terms I was given.

This is a note for everyone:

I forgot to add:

Please list as many Taiwanese Hokkien terms for "man among men" as possible. Thank you.

[LiYuanXi]

za bo lang diong e za bo lang is rather close already. I think that is the closest you can get.

Lu probably meant za bo lang refers to a male while in english 'man' can refer to any human being, male or female.

If you are generally refering to human beings, I think you can say lang diong ji lang (人中之人).

[Mavericker]

Hello LiYuanXi and Lu. Thank you for responding.

Someone told me:

男中（之）男 is Taiwanese Hokkien for "man among men". Is this correct?

[Mavericker]

Hello. I'd also like to know:

is LIN SIONG LIN a Taiwanese Hokkien term?

[fireball9261]

Isn't LIN SIONG LIN 人上人 in Taiwanese? It means a person above other persons, or a person who has higher status than other persons. My Taiwanese is not that good either.

[Lu]

I'm pretty sure that 人 is lang5, not lin, so 人上人 wouldn't be lin siong lin.

[fireball9261]

Ok, I think you are probably right. I sometimes mix my dialects. So what could be Lin? And what could be siong?

[LiYuanXi]

人上人 - lin siong lin

人 can be lin or lang depending on the sentence. Lin is a classical pronunciation and lang is a common pronunciation. We refer them to 文话 and 白话. In the sentence above, 人上人, it should be lin siong lin not lang siong lang.

Another example to show my point:

床前明月光 - cong jian bieng guat gong

疑是地上霜 - gyi si dei siong song

举头望明月 - gee tio bong bieng guat

低头思故乡 - lay tio su gor hiong

PS: The han yu pin yin for 举 is not very accurate cuz I can't find a perfect spelling for it.

So you can see above that 月 is guat not the common guey, 光 is gong not the common gng and 头 is tio not the common tao. The pronunciations are changed because this is a poem so we should use the 'wen' version for pronouncing.

Hope you guys got my point~

[LiYuanXi]

I forgot to mention that if you use the 'bai' version to read the poem in taiwanese, it wouldn't rhyme!

[fireball9261]

Ah! No wonder I thought I had heard it this way. I thought I was crazy. LiYuanXi, thank you for your information. I wasn't in the proper Taiwanese environment for many years, so I have forgotten some of those details. However, I didn't know the 文话 and 白话 differences. I just heard those poems being read in Taiwanese - probably in 文话.

[zozzen]

人中之龍 ?

dragon among men.

[achiese]

We used to say "正港的查甫人”or "正港的男子漢”.

[calibre2001]

I'm pretty sure cha-bo means girl!!!!

[Mugi]

I'm pretty sure cha-bo means girl!!!!

You're quite right, cha-bóu (commonly written in characters as 查某) means "girl". However, achiese wrote 查甫 (also commonly written as 查埔 among other possibilities; 本字 is probably 丈夫) which is pronounced "cha-pou" (or "ta-pou") and means "boy" - different initial and tone for the second syllable.

[Lu]

In POJ, cha-boo2 is woman, cha-poo1 man.

Edit: corrected my mistake, to modified POJ as I can't type the o-dot (and even if I could you couldn't see it).

[Mugi]

Lu, with all due respect, I think you're mistaken (although your orthography is correct for Taipei pronunciation). (Modified) POJ is what I used (the "u" is the standard substitute for a dot after the "o" which doesn't show up unless you have a Taiwanese specific font installed).

Tones aside, 某 bou [bɔ] ≠無 bo [bə]; 甫/埔 pou [pɔ] ≠玻 po [pə]

[Lu]

You're right, I realized later that I forgot the dot. Never saw that ou for o-dot, I see oo more often, which is why I thought you got it wrong.

[Mugi]

I think the double "o" is another system (which is very similar POJ) - TLPA? Although it could just be someone's personal preference ...